Iowa Department of Public Health Deputy Director Sarah Reisetter says increased testing leads to an increased number of positive cases of COVID-19.

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The number of Dallas County positive cases reported April 21 was 59.

The number of Dallas County positive cases reported April 22 was 67.

The number of Dallas County positive cases reported April 23 was 99.

The number of Dallas County positive cases reported April 24 was 130.

The number of positive cases of novel coronavirus infections in Dallas County grew from 67 on Thursday to 130 on Saturday, according to information provided by the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH).

The jump marks a 94% increase on Thursday’s total and a 120% increase on Wednesday’s reported number of 59 positive cases in Dallas County. Statewide, 5,092 positive cases were identified as of Saturday.

“We’ve seen a significant spike,” Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds said Friday, “but we are testing a whole lot of people, and we’re going into areas that are hot zones, so we know there’s a significant outbreak in the areas that we’re going into.”

Iowa Department of Public Health Deputy Director Sarah Reisetter also explained Friday’s big jump in positive cases as a function of the increased availability of tests.

“We had a large jump today,” Reisetter said Friday. “We did a large volume of cases today, and I think we’re going to see that as more of these surveillance testing sites go up and as people start to get access to TestIowa. So I think that what we can expect is we are going to see our case counts continue to increase.”

The number of Dallas County cases is likely to increase in coming days because Tyson Fresh Meats in Perry tested a large portion of its 1,300 workers Saturday.

Reisetter said the curve for infection rates in Iowa will probably peak by mid-May and then gradually decline.

“We fully anticipate that we’re going to see a peak in the next two or three weeks as we really start to do some of the surveillance testing that we’ve been doing,” she said.

A spokesperson for the Perry facility did not reply to a message inquiring about planned steps following Saturday’s mass testing. The Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Logansport, Indiana, announced its temporary closure Wednesday after 146 employees tested positive for the novel coronavirus. The 2,800-person Tyson Fresh Meats factory in Waterloo also suspended operations Wednesday due to an outbreak of the infectious disease.